


Night time wandering

by Tolazytocomeupwithaname



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Post-Episode: s11e08 The Witchfinders, Sick Fic, Thasmin if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:01:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21674134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tolazytocomeupwithaname/pseuds/Tolazytocomeupwithaname
Summary: Getting caught up in a witch trial is bound to have an effect on anyone. No one's invincible. Not even the Doctor.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63





	Night time wandering

Yaz watches in horror as the Doctor disappears under the water. This can’t be happening. She waits for her to come back up but she doesn’t. They were too late and she’s not coming up. It’s the Doctor and she’ll be fine because she’s always fine and she’s the Doctor. But she’s still not coming up. 

She pushes past the crowd and dives in. It’s so dark she can’t even distinguish shapes but she persists. She has too. The Doctor will be okay. She has to be. She swims and swims and eventually her hands grasp another. The relief she feels is short lived when the hand in hers remains limp. It’ll be fine though. So long as she can get the Doctor out it’ll be fine. 

So she pulls and swims. The Doctors pulls her down. Her arm feels like it’s being pulled out of her socket. Her clothes add to the drag and her lungs burn with the need to breath. Yaz isn’t even sure if she’s going the right way but still she swims. 

She can’t find the surface. She’s half sure she’s been swimming the wrong way. She needs to breath but she can’t. She needs to rest but she can’t. She wants to give up but the Doctor needs her. 

She can’t take it anymore. She gasps in a breath of air only to realise she can breathe. She’s in her bed on the tardis. She’s safe and so’s the Doctor. 

She tries to go back to sleep but she can’t settle. She decides to go in search of the Doctor just to prove to herself she’s okay. Just a quick glance and then she’ll be able to sleep. 

The lights in the hallway outside her room are dimmed but still bright enough to see. It has a kind of eerie feel to it. The ship hums and pulses below her in a way that she almost does believe it’s alive. 

The console room is surprisingly empty. Or maybe not so surprising. It is late after all. 

She loiters at the edge of the console room uncertain. She’s never been in it without the Doctor before. She’s usually still working on repairs when Yaz goes to bed and by the time she gets up in the morning she’s whizzing around the room chatting a mile a minuet about where she wants to go next. It feels wrong to be there without her. Almost invasive. Yaz knows she’s being ridiculous but she can’t quite bring herself to take another step. 

She wanders for a bit halfheartedly searching for the Doctor but no matter which way she goes she seems to end up back at the console room.

Every time she passes Ryans room the light shines under his door so she decides he’s her best bet for company. 

“Hey,” she says sticking her head round the door. “Couldn’t sleep either?”

“Nah. wanna join me,” he gestures at the game he’s playing “It’s a good way to get your head to shut up for a bit.”

She peers at the screen to see he’s playing a first person shooter game.“I can’t believe the Doctors okay with you playing this in the tardis.” she jokes only to burst out laughing when she sees his face. 

“She doesn’t know does she? It’s like you're nine and hiding them from your mum.” 

“I’m not hiding them and she’s not me mum. It’s just. Y’know. She can be kinda scary sometimes when it comes to guns.”

Despite her teasing he’s right. It’s a good way to shut off her brain. They play well into the night and when she returns to her room she sleeps without issue. 

Despite her late night she wakes up at her usual time. Unable to get back to sleep she heads for the kitchen in search of coffee. 

“Morning, Doctor up yet?” she says to Graham who’s nursing a cup of tea at the table by himself.

“No which is odd. She’s usually got the kettle boiled for tea when I come down in the morning.”

“Can’t make the tea yourself in your old age then?” she jokes but the edge of worry is starting to poke through. Where is she?

“I was just saying it’s strange is all. I don’t suppose you know where her room is?” 

She shakes her head regretfully. It feels like she should but she doesn’t. Hadn’t even considers that the Doctor would have a room before although of course she must have somewhere to rest. Somewhere she could hide from the world. It’s hard to associate something as human as a bedroom to someone like the Doctor. She’s still pondering the image of the Doctor with a bedroom when they hear Ryan shout. 

He’s kneeling underneath the console. When Yaz circles around to see what he’s looking at her heart drops. He’s hovering over an unconscious Doctor who’s curled up in a ball on the floor wheezing for breath. “She’s in a bad way. I can’t find any injuries but she’s burning up. I think she must have caught something at the bottom of that lake.”

Yaz feels a pang of guilt. If she hadn’t been so childish last night she would have found her. She could have been the one to take care of her while the boys slept. She quickly pushes the thought out of her head. This is no time to be selfish. 

She kneels beside Ryan and presses the back of one hand to the Doctors forehead and wraps the other around her wrist. The Doctor groans and weakly trys to move away. Yaz can’t make heads or tails of the double heartbeat but she knows Ryans right. She’s far too warm.

“There’s got to be a med bay or something, right?” she asks the boys in desperation. 

“I know where one is,” Graham says to her relief. The three of them awkwardly carry her but thankfully don’t drop her. They deposit her on the single bed in the sterile white room and Ryan immediately begins rooting around in the medicine cabinet.

“I don’t know what half this stuff is but she’s got aspirin. That’s safe for humans. It’ll help her right?”

“She’s not human though,” Yaz realises suddenly feeling very out of her dept. “How do we know that what’s safe for us is safe for her.” 

“So what? We just wait it out and hope for the best?” Ryan sounds horrified at the thought. 

“What about her home planet? Maybe we can figure out how to fly the Tardis and get her there. Her own people are bound to be able to help her,” Graham suggests.

“Does anyone know where she’s from?”

“She said she lost her family,” it sounds defensive even to her own ears. They really should have asked these questions along time ago.   
"That doesn't mean her whole planets gone"

“The fevers getting worse,” says Graham as he gently places a hand on her forehead. “Whatever we do we need to do it now.”

Her forehead is creased in distress. She’s sweating too. That can’t be good. 

“Cold cloths. That’s what you’d do with a human with a fever.” 

They soak some wet bandages they find in the sink and gently place one on their friends forehead. 

Yaz presses her ear against the Doctors chest to try and get a feel for her heartbeat. Even if she doesn’t know what’s normal she might be able to figure out if it changes. “She’s still sopping wet.” she realises. Part of her is horrified that they let this go unnoticed but a bigger part of her is relieved to have something to do.

“Has she been lying in those all night? No wonder she’s so unwell.”

Yaz opts to push down the feelings of guilt that comment illicts in favour of taking control of the situation. 

“I’ve a spare set of pyjamas in my room. If you go get them I van get her changed.”

Getting the Doctor undressed isn’t an easy task. She fights her every step of the way without ever really waking up. She’s scarily weak and Yaz overpowers her without difficulty. She tries talk the Doctor through what's happening keeping her tone as soothing as she can manage but she shows no understanding of the situation. The whole process scarcely gives Yaz time to think about what she’s actually doing and soon she’s redressed in dry clothes. 

The Doctor looks like a stranger in Yaz’s fluffy purple pyjamas. Sweaty, far too pale and expression absolutely miserable. Yaz reaches out to brush a stray strand of hair out of her face but retracts it again. She doesn’t want to set the Doctor off again. 

The Doctor doesn’t rouse again until well into the next night. She shifts and squirms for a few minutes before mumbling something in a strange lilting language and opening her eyes. “Doctor” Yaz gasps in relief but the Doctors eyes are glassy and she doesn’t even seem to see Yaz. 

Yaz reaches for the Doctors hand but as soon as they make contact she flinches back into the cushions and screws up her face as if in pain. 

They spend the next few days keeping watch over their friend. On the second day the fever spikes so high they’re terrified they might lose her. They strip the bed of its duvet and wrap her in a thin sheet they’ve soaked in water. She wakes occasionally in clear distress and unable to recognise any of them. 

It’s Ryan that suggests the ice bath. Seeing no other option Yaz grabs her ankles and Ryan grabs her wrists and between the two of them they haul her into the bathroom while Graham goes in search of ice.

The Bathroom isn’t far but the Doctor is groaning in distress and doing her best to free herself from their grasp. Her skin is piping hot under Yazs hands and she’s terrified of dropping her. A worried voice in the back of her head tells her they shouldn’t be able to carry the Doctor when she’s struggling like this. She’s getting even weaker. She calms down a little once they place her gently in the tub. 

“I found this sitting on the kitchen table. Dunno where it came from.” Graham enters the room struggling to carry a large bag of ice. 

“I guess we just dump it into the bath with her,” Yaz says wincing when she catches sight of the Doctors pale face. She’s clearly in pain. This really needs to work.

The distress on her face seems to lessen as they fill the bath but she doesn’t wake. She’s breathing shallowly. If she dies it’ll be all her fault. Yaz pushes the thought as far down as she can. The Doctor will be fine. Of course she will. She’s the Doctor. She’s always fine.

They decide to leave her in the bath overnight. Yaz offers to take the first shift watching over her. There’s no question about leaving the Doctor alone.

Yaz tries talking to her like she’s seen people do on the telly but her voice sounds strange and uncertain in the quiet of the ship. She keeps expecting to be interrupted but the Doctor sleeps on. It’s been a long two days and with only the unconscious Doctor to keep her company Yaz struggles to keep her eyes open.

She’s sure she does’t sleep for more than an hour but she wakes with a crink in her neck from her awkward position to the sound of the Doctor's voice. 

“Why am I in the bath with my clothes on?”

“We were trying to cool you down.” she says still half asleep before realisation hits her “Doctor you’re alive.”

“Of course I’m alive. I’m fine. Promise. I just took a little nap is all. You lot do it every night.” 

“Scared us half to death more like. It’s been nearly three days.” 

The Doctor winced guiltily. “A big nap then.”

Yaz wraps her up in a hug to hide her tears of relief relishing in the cool feel of the Doctors skin. “Promise me you’ll never do that again.”

“Yeah,” she takes in a shuddering breath, “yeah I’ll try.”


End file.
